Research Projects
by TaraEdalyaAragonAvaria
Summary: These are all of my research projects and essays that i have created in school and someof them might be in a different perspective like the history one about the battle of verdun that is supposed to be me attempting to write in the way a reporter from that time would write
1. Conformity

_Research Question: Why shouldn't we care about what people think?_

asdfghjkl;Title

Many people care about what others think. They conform to another persons standard or to the "rules" of society. Why hide their true selves? Is it because there is too much peer pressure?someone is forcing them to conform? Or is it because they feel that they have to, to make them feel accepted or to make someone else happy or we shouldn't care about what people think , because we don't need someones approval to be feel important, everyone is important in one way or another. We should be true to ourselves instead of being 'cool'. We are all unique in our own ways, so it is your choice of who _you_ are.

We shouldn't care about what people think, because we are all important with or without them. In the time of the Ninth doctor, in the episode called "The Unquiet Dead" the Doctor states " In my 900 years of living I have yet to meet someone that is not important."(Euros Lyn) In this scenario the Doctor is facing an extraterrestrial form that is speaking through dead bodies, the person whom he is saying it to is Gwyneth, she is a servant that thought less of herself due to some discouragement from her boss, , and she has visions of what is happening in different places in the present future or past. This shows how the Doctor conveys, to the shows audience and Gwyneth, that not everyone might be going down in a history book, but in one way or another you are important to the world and to the people you interact with. The larger implication of this is that, instead of doing what other people think we should be doing, we should just be who we are. Also supporting that, is another Doctor Who episode "Father's Day", the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler go into the past to see Rose's father right before he died, so that he wouldn't be alone when he died, Rose prevents him from dying and the Reapers are sent to try to fix the tear in time. At this situation the Doctor starts scolding Rose, saying that she is just another selfish person that has taken advantage of him and tried to bring back someone they weren't supposed to ,also saying that "even the most common man is the most significant and important man in history"(Joe Ahearne). This evidence shows, that even if the completely ordinary they are extraordinary and very much significant. This is important because, of the way we should live is to our own concern and no one elses, unless it starts to negatively affect others . "Everyone needs reminders that the fact of their being on this earth is important and the each life changes everything" (Marge Kennedy,100 things you can do to keep your family together...pt.1, 1994). This demonstrates that, even if you don't believe that you are important others do think that you are , it can be inferred that with others believing that you are important, should encourage you to think that you are important. In the book The Last Olympian, by Rick Riordan, Percy asks for every fighter over the age of 15 years of age(not including Nico di Angelo a 12 year old son of Hades with extraordinary powers and training from the underworld). Due to the life expectancy of a demigod, the heroes are trained from the age they realize until they are at the ability to take care of themselves and others in a world full of monsters(Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Real world[criminals, robbers and others]). This shows that, every demigod even the unclaimed or the minor demigods are treated the same as any other hero in the book. this means that, even the weakest demigod is counted on, that they are going to do the best they can to destroy as many monsters as they can to prevent the death or injury of an innocent being and Percy jackson has the modesty to not take credit for all the lives that he has saved due to someone making his destiny for him, but in the end he changed his fate and made someone else into a hero (and he got the chance to say that he killed the titan kronos by handing him a knife;)). This means that, anyone even the smallest person can make a difference and make themselves important. So we are all important, we just need a chance to see that we are or someone has given us a chance to see that we are important.

Instead of doing something to be 'cool' we should be true to ourselves. For example, in the Doctor Who episode called "The Eleventh Hour", The Doctor says to a seven year old Amy Pond(Amelia Pond) " Amelia Pond. Great Name you should keep it. It sounds like a fairytale." (Adam Smith) What the Doctor means is, that she shouldn't change herself , no matter what other people say it's okay to stay in your fantasy, as long as you know what is important to you. Later in the episode the Doctor tries to find Amy at that exact age and day, but he ends up going 12 years too far into the future, she gets angry at him saying she had to go through three counselors, because she kept biting them when they said that the Doctor wasn't real. The Doctor became disappointed at hearing that she went through so much trouble for just believing in him, but he gets even more disappointed when she says her name is Amy now, because she changed, she stopped being her, a child that was so innocent, someone "the Doctor didn't mess up" as he said when he was nearly dieing in another episode. In this era of technology anything can be hacked into or monitored by someone else, you know what can't be hacked into without permission from the owner, you mind. The minds is a unique thing that can make up the most remarkable stories and universes, I mean just look at the stories that humankind has created: a worlds full of wizards, demigods, monsters, magic, even the future, and many other things. In the Supernatural episode " LARPing and the Real Girl" , Charlie Bradbury stated that "It's not just that, though. It's an escape. I mean, here, I'm queen, a hero. Out there in the real world, I'm just hacking out code and chugging coffee all day long."(Robbie Thompson) This shows that, even though she is just a somewhat normal person most of the time, she still finds time in her day enjoying her true self. This shows that, even if you want to look professional, once in a while it is ok to be yourself even if it with alot of the same people, at least they have the same interests. The other day, I asked my little sister what she thinks it means to be true to yourself, her response "Well being true to yourself is to stand up for what you think is right, go against something or someone that you feel is wrong, and you have to be able to stand up to the little voice in your head that causes all the negativity in your life." I feel that this is possibly the wisest thing that she has said to me. This shows that over the years there is going to be at least one person that sees something a little bit differently, how they feel about something that seems negative, but in it's own way, it is positive. In the Kane Chronicles series, also by Rick Riordan, throughout all three books Anubis keeps telling Sadie Kane to be true to herself and stop fight for dominance with Isis, one of the voices in her head( the other being her conscience and the occasional god or ghost messing with her head), the goddess of magic. He not only tells her this , but he also tells her that he like her just the way she is. So this means that, there are many people that believed that she should be true to herself(not to mention her overbearing brother that believes this as well). So if Sadie Kane, the most stubborn character in Rick Riordan's books, can be herself to everyone else then you can too. So don't you think that you should be true to yourself as well?

Everyone is unique in their own ways and you aren't alone when it comes to stuff you like. Deoxyribonucleic Acid, it's what makes us what we are, it is the blueprint of our lives, it stores infinite information about the human body it is part of ,and what I like about it most is, that it is unique, that little strand of acids, is the most important thing in the human body. It can be multiplied over and over again to make new cells, but it is not always the same outcome, it has the littlest changes in it every time it makes new cells, so that not one of them are exactly the same. The point is, that even if you do choose to conform, you are still you because there is no one else like you out there in the world. Looking around classrooms and other area you will come to realize that not everyone is the same and even if they wear the same clothes and stuff you can always tell the difference, even twins have differences whether it be their personalities or their physical appearance. So, remember that everyone is unique in their own ways even if the look the same they will never seem the same , because everyone is different in their own fantastic little ways, the ways that will never change, no matter what. Another piece of evidence is, That in the show 'Supernatural', when both Sam and dean die ,in episode called "The Dark Side of the Moon", they go to heaven and they meet up with a friend named Ash from a few years ago( He was killed by demons to prevent the spread of important information). Ash then states" Everyone in heaven gets their own little slice, because they all have different events that makes them feel truly happy, kind of like you[Dean], one event from your heaven is, the time you and Sammy were playing with fireworks on fourth of July". These events are the ones that define you for who _you_ are and what you feel is the happiest moments of your life. This shows that everyone has their own definition of a happy day or a great time. In the book City of Glass, by Cassandra Clare, Clary Makes a new rune of power, it is called the rune of bonding, they use this rune to bind someone with another person or creature. Clary made this symbol in order to unite the different species of people in the book. She successfully binds many people to each other (this rune is much like the relationship of _parabatai_ , which is also a binding rune, but it only worked on the Nephilim) and the benefits of the rune were that the people involved were more powerful, but the one condition was that the people involved must get along well for it to work properly. This evidence shows that, even if you are being your self there is always a chance to gain new friends(even if they were not willing to be friends at first).This is significant because, this means that if you are yourself, your beautiful unique self, you are not alone when it comes to things you might have in you ever heard the saying that "If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you?" and then later on in life hearing "Why can't you be like other children or like so and so?", if not, well I have and so has Troy Cochrane along with many other people that agree with him on /a-short-note-on-bridge-jumping/ ,frankly we have found these phrases contradictory. When people say the second phrase consecutive to the first then, to paraphrase it,they're saying "Hey, everyone else is jumping off the bridge. Why aren't you?" well frankly this seems a bit as though they are mocking us, goading us to conform, to prove them right and to show that you are inferior to the people you are conforming to. You are not inferior , do not let their words affect you in a negative way, just use it as another reason to be yourself, like everyone, you are unique.

We shouldn't care about what others think. We are people that are important, we are able to think for ourselves and be our true selves, we are unique individuals, so why does it matter what other people think of you? Ask yourself that. Why care about what people think? Remember that you are who you are and you and no one can change that not scientifically, not emotionally and not psychologically.

Cochrane, Troy. "Chris Guillebeau." A Short Note on Bridge Jumping : The Art of Non-Conformity. 9 June 2008. Web. 25 Nov. 2014. /a-short-note-on-bridge-jumping/

 _Doctor Who_. 2 Entertain ;, 2012. Film.

Marge Kennedy,100 things you can do to keep your family together...pt.1, 1994

Riordan, Rick. _Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian_. London: Puffin, 2010. Print

Riordan, Rick. _The Kane Chronicles_. New York: Puffin,2008-2011. Print

 _Supernatural._ Eric Kripke.


	2. Emotions and Music

_Research Question: What roles do music play in the emotional development of children and adolescents?_

The Truth of the Tunes

Have any of us ever noticed that whenever we feel different emotions and we're listening to music we have a different reaction to it than we would have if we were experiencing a different emotion? Making music, playing music and listening to music, they all have some kind of emotional affect on a person. Sometimes it is frustration or anger and at other times it might be happiness and serenity. Certain types of music, annoy you, get you pumped up, make you happier, and is there for you when you are sad and lonely. Music stimulates, manipulates, and affirms the emotions of children and adolescents.

Music stimulates our emotions, whether we want it to or not. For example, have you ever just listened to a song that just gets you pumped up or extremely angry for no reason. Studies have shown that male adolescent are more likely to listen to music to get pumped up while female adolescents are more likely to listen to music that they say reflects their emotions (Council of Communications and Media 3). When guys listen to music they listen to it to get pumped up about something like sports, this effect them by making them more energetic and positive. While when it comes to girls, we mostly listen to music, because we want to get more in touch with our emotions therefore making us seem more subdued or emotional at times. Another way music stimulates our emotions is, when they listen to "angry" music or as it is actually categorized as punk, heavy metal, metal, and alternative rock. People who have listened to any of those types of music experience heightened emotions, and more rage than they usually have. Like, people who have listened to the music created by the band My Chemical Romance, a band that made alternative rock and punk music would be more energetic or have more problems with authorities (depending on what album they listen to[this is based off of what actual people have said about MCR's album _Danger Days_ ]) than, let's say fans of Pierce the Veil, a post-hardcore band, because those fans would be more emotional than others, being more in touch with their emotions (these are statistics that I have collected from a poll on the social media app called iFunny). This indicates that, not all music that is classified as "angry" by society is negative. There are many other ways that music stimulates the emotions of children and adolescents, a poll that I took in AVID with my group, stated that 2/7 people felt disappointed about what they were listening to, while 3/7 did not answer and 1/7 honestly did not care what they were listening to and the other 1/7 felt pumped up by the music that they listened to. This not only shows that people do feel that their emotions change varying on the type of music they listen to, but also that sometimes they just listen to music to just have some kind of noise so they don't feel lonely. In the episode "A Study in Pink" ,from the TV series _Sherlock_ by Steven Moffat, when Sherlock first introduces himself to Watson he says "Watson, you can live with me if you don't mind me playing the violin from time to time. It helps me make sense of things and I used to do it when I was young." (Moffat) This shows that, not only listening to music but also playing music stimulates the emotions and thoughts of a person. All this evidence is not just for me to have fun with, this is to prove that music stimulates the emotions and it doesn't stop at emotions it can go further and further. Music not only stimulates the emotions but it also manipulates the emotions.

Have you ever been in a bad mood then listened to your favorite band or solo artist and just calmed down within seconds? Or just thought about the lyrics of a song and it makes you laugh or be happy even if you were sad or in a bad mood? That would be music manipulating your emotions. From personal experience I know that if I want to get pumped up I listen to "Na Na Na" by My Chemical Romance. If I want to reflect on all of my emotions I listen to "Bulletproof Love" by Pierce the Veil. If I want to get angry I listen to "Fallen Angels" by Black Veil Brides, an American rock band, and when someone (my sister Priya) wants to annoy me, they just play "Build Me Up Buttercup" by Mike D'Abo and Tony Macaulay. This shows how people use different strategies when they create music to make certain people feel different things. Therefore the songwriters are manipulating your emotions using song lyrics and tunes. Here's a fun fact: My Chemical Romance only made the song "Vampire Money" to make fun of the book and movie series _Twilight_. A few months before they made this song the producers of the movie series _Twilight_ asked them to make a song for their next movie and the band said no. On a later day they wrote the song "Vampire Money" and talked about it to the _Spin_ magazine Ray Toro said "Gerard wrote those lyrics to the song as if to say, 'If you want a song for the movie this is what's it's going to be.' The phrase 'vampire money' came when we were doing an interview and the guy asked us if we were going to get some of that 'vampire money' that everybody wants. So that's what the song's about. I think songs for soundtracks can be cool but we don't really buy into the movie. We don't personally enjoy it but that's not to say it's bad." In another interview Gerard Way stated "We were the only kids in black wearing mascara playing heavy music in the punk clubs where we were from. With things like _Twilight_ the idea of anything gothic like vampires wasn't scary any more, they were sexy or contemplative. To me vampires are the new Jonas Brothers. So we've gone the opposite way." ( . ?id=21508) This basically means, that Media has ruined the 'punk' and 'goth' that they liked to be and to be seen as, and turned it into what they hated the most, tacky and ,as Gerard Way said, contemplative. Which in turn means that media manipulates music and music manipulates the emotions, so media manipulates you emotions. On an off note after this the kids TV series _Yo Gabba Gabba_ wanted them to create and perform a song for the show and they did , you can look it up if you want to it is called "Every Snowflake's Different Just Like You", I listened to it and it was really good. If you look at the lyrics of the song that they performed on that kids TV show, it is the kind of song that a person would listen to if they wanted to boost their self-esteem or just to laugh and be happy, because the "kings of 'punk' and 'goth' " singing a song about Snowflakes on a kids TV show, it's a huge burn on the producers of _Twilight_ , sending out a message that they would rather play on a kids TV show than the _Twilight_ movies, therefore this song was meant to make the fans and producers of twilight angry and annoyed. In the 5th Harry Potter book, _The Order of the Phoenix_ , Chapter 19, while Ron was playing in a Quidditch match the slytherins started sing "Weasley is our King" to taunt/mock him, this results in Ron being so nervous and annoyed that he does not save a single thing causing them to almost lose the game until Harry caught the Golden Snitch(the objective of the game is to catch the snitch and end the game, when someone catches the snitch the automatically get 150 points and this has won many games except for the quidditch world cup) (Rowling).The point of this is that some music is created to annoy people and mess them up because I am pretty sure if someone made a song ridiculing people we care for because even the most positive and self-respecting person would even be a little angry. That proves that music is designed to manipulate the emotions of whom it was meant for whether it be the Slytherins to annoy the Gryffindors or MCR to annoy fans and producers of _Twilight_. But don't think that music only stimulates and manipulates our emotions, because it also affirms our emotions.

'Affirm' meaning offer emotional support or encouragement. Have you ever just felt like giving up on school and life, than just listened to one of your favorite songs and you gain hope in the world again? A person who wishes to stay anonymous asked a question on social media(on this social media site everyone usually remains anonymous unless they wish not to, so they actually are honest when it comes to questions), the question was " like this post if your parents thought you were depressed because of your music; repost if you have the counterargument that your music prevents you from getting too depressed and provides you with the emotional support that you were lacking." Out of a thousand viewers of this post 699 reposted it and 500 people liked it and the rest just ignored it. This shows how many people really do lack emotional support from the people who are supposed to care about them. These are the people that wanted them as their child the people that raised them and the people that are supposed to make us feel better instead of emotionally injuring them by insulting the very thing that has actually given them emotional support. It also shows how many people look up to their favorite artists and celebrities when they lack, what they deem as, an appropriate role model in their homes and they find solace in the lyrics of the songs that they listen to. Which in turn reassures them that things will get better, therefore music helps sort out their emotions. In the episode "Bedewed Butler", from the anime series _Black Butler_ , based of the manga written and illustrated by Yana Toboso, one of the demons acting as Alois Trancy's servants, Hannah Annafellows, plays a demonic instrument called the armonica. The armonica then makes the party goers (most of them under the age of 18 years) turn into mindless zombies that are at her beck and call (Toboso ). The armonica had them in a state of peace and calm, which caused them to be more trusting towards the persuasive instrument, therefore in their subconscious they thought they were doing the right thing, which would keep them happy forever. For a short time it did keep them happy and calm but in the end they were in agony. This not only connects to music affirming the emotions of us but also to the earlier topic of music manipulating the emotions. This scene shows that music can manipulate our emotions by luring you into a false sense of security and it also reassures us that we should keep calm and let music take over your actions and emotions. Also whenever my dad felt stressed, he listened to his favorite song "Vaishnav jana to" a song that a lot of different people sing in India and Fiji in honor of Mahatma Gandhi, who once said that this was his favorite song, it has a lot of deep meanings to the lyrics. For example "jivha thaki, asatya na bole" means "your tongue shall never tire, if you speak no lies." What I find is the most obvious meaning to this quote is, to not tell a lie, because people will always see the truth in the end, probably because you have to tell a lie then cover it up with another lie , then cover it up with alot of other lies and so on until someone catches your horrible lying skills. This encourages my dad not to lie too much and to try to speak the truth as much as he can. So what meaning do YOU draw from this quote? This concludes that music affirms the emotions by telling us that we should tell the truth. Music reassures us when it comes to our emotions, sometimes you might not even realize it ,but it does.

Music plays the roles of a stimulator, a manipulator, and a therapist. You might even call it a Slytherin (something or someone who is very cunning and ambitious), when you realize how many sneaky things it is capable of doing. You never know some of the most intense feelings that you ever experience can originate from the type of music that you are listening to. Next time you listen to your favorite playlist acknowledge how you are feeling and determine whether that is a good or bad feeling because it might just make you see music differently.

MLA Citation Page

Fuld, Gilbert, Deborah Mulligan, Tanya Altmann, Ari Brown, Dimitri Christakis, Kathleen

Clarke-Pearson, Benard Dreyer, Holly Falik, Kathleen Nelson, Gwen O'Keefe, Victor

Strasburger, Michael Brody, and Brian Wilcox. "Impact of Music, Music Lyrics, and Music

Videos on Children and Youth." _Impact of Music, Music Lyrics, and Music Videos on Children and Youth_. Academy of Pediatrics, 19 Oct. 2009. Web. 19 Jan. 2015.

"My Chemical Romance." _\- Every Snowflake Is Different Lyrics_. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.

Rowling, J. K. "The Lion and the Serpent." _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_. New York, NY:

Arthur A. Levine, 2003. Print

 _Sherlock_. Perf. Vinette Robinson, Jonathan Aris, Phil Davis, Lisa McAllister, David Nellist, Benedict

Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Una Stubbs, Rupert Graves. 2010. Film.

"Vampire Money by My Chemical Romance Songfacts." _Vampire Money by My Chemical Romance_

 _Songfacts_. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.


	3. Life Goals made in AVID

Life Goals

There are many ways to achieve my goals and for others to achieve their goals, the most common and useful ways to achieve these goals are listed in _The Goals That Guide Us_ By Hara Estroff Marano. And to learn how to apply those steps for achieving goals to our lives we watched a movie that was all about achieving goals, this movie is called _Spare Parts_ directed by Sean McNamara. While watching this movie we learned how to apply the steps for achieving goals to our own goal in life. I believe that I can connect the Marano article to the movie _Spare Parts_ in accordance to the beginning, the middle and the end, then I will connect them to my own goals and obstacles.

In the beginning they had a few obstacles, but they did find ways to resolve them and achieved their short term goals. One of the first goals the group had to achieve was creating a prototype. They first had to find someone to actually build it, because the teacher wasn't allowed to build it, the "computer geek" was only good with theory, and the person who started up the project was better at leading than he was at building, so once they found someone they had to convince him to actually join the group. The only way they were able to "convince" him to join the group was to threaten him into submission and once they had him, they found that he was tech savvy enough to create a prototype out of regular household items within a few minutes. To get him to do this, they asked for help from the principal and from the teacher that was in charge of the robotics team, this strategy is called enlisting the help of others, it is mentioned as one of the efficient ways to achieve goals in _The Goals That Guide Us_ By H. , so we can say that this is an exemplary way to achieve goals. Similar situations from my own life have happened where I had to enlist the help of others, it happens all the time. Whenever I write essays or articles I never quite get the grammar right so run on sentences happen everywhere and I get commas in the wrong places and my sister is very skilled when it comes down to using proper grammar, while I am better at public speaking, so I usually have her grammar check my essays and articles. This shows how enlisting the help of others can help you achieve your goals, but you can't just rely on others to help you in order to achieve your goals.

In the middle of the movie they made a timeline in which they listed what they had to get done by each date and they were able to make the machine in time for the competition.. This is similar to The homework schedule I create over the weekend so that all my work is complete for my classes on Mondays. By creating a timeline I completed work ,that would normally have taken me several hours to finish within around two hours. It really helped when I was trying to stay organized and also helped me finish my work as quickly as possible. When doing this you also end up listing the subgoals required for what you want to achieve in the long run. But that's not all there is to achieve goals, because it takes a lot more than that to actually ride on the road to success.

Ms Alvarez is awesome and fun

Throughout the movie but mostly towards the end they were low on morale, because it seemed that Murphy's Law was out to get them , Murphy's law states that 'Anything that can go wrong will go wrong', and it did. The battery was fried and then it got wet, so it looked like things were going to end for them, they were far worse than disappointed, but their teacher helped them cheer up by giving them a pep talk, telling them that if they ever wanted to go into their college or career of choice and live their dreams they would have to quit being glum and try harder to make things go their way. This pep talk gave them the motivation they needed and they ended up figuring out a way to solve their problems, albeit it was an unorthodox way to solve it, but they did end up solving it. What their teacher did is called listing the benefits of achieving the goal and it is certainly an effective way to achieve the goal. I also do something like this during the school year when I have a particularly large pile of homework, I usually give myself a reward for each subject completed and once all the homework is completed I feel so good, it's like I'm as light as air, my brain doesn't hurt as much after doing homework because of this and I usually reward myself with a snack or treat, such as ice cream, at the end. This is similar to what happened in the movie, because my goal was to get the snack and the obstacle was my homework, while their obstacle was the fried and wet battery and their goal was to get in the college or career of their choice. This really works for me and apparently it worked for them as well.

In conclusion, we can see that it takes a lot to achieve goals and it is not always easy to do that. To show this I connected the movie _Spare Parts_ , which was directed by Sean McNamara, the article _The Goals That Guide Us_ written by Hara Estroff Marano and my own personal life together. These strategies are reliable and very helpful in achieving my goals and would possibly work well with your goals and obstacles. They also ended up giving me new ways to solve real world problems.

Work Cited

Marano, Hara. "The Goals That Guide Us | Psychology Today." Psychology Today, 22 July 2003.

Web. 5 Oct 2015

 _Spare Parts_. Dir. Sean McNamara. Lionsgate, 2015 Film


	4. Technology

_Technology in Our Lives_

Technology helps society, because it allows us to improve life and connect with others. In a TED Talk meeting Amr Ashraf stated that he started Revolution 2.0 in Egypt, to get people around the world to be aware of unjust leadership in Egypt. The evidence shows that, with technology Amr Ashraf was able to inform millions of people about unjust laws, actions, and leadership. This shows that, technology can be a useful resource to spread important information that others might want to know. Also, scientists at SFSU have used technology to create prosthetic limbs for amputees, to help them go about their daily lives. This evidence demonstrates that, technology is allowing people with loss of limb to do things they weren't able to do before with their prosthetic limbs. The significance of this evidence is that, amputees can now gain a new perspective of life or just a new perspective of the little things in life that define the events that we cherish . Another piece of evidence is, during the summer, I posted something to my subscribers ,on iFunny, and within seconds people started responding to it. This evidence illustrates that, technology can gives us access to new information within seconds. The larger implication of the evidence is, that technology allows people to send and receive information that they might want to know. In conclusion, technology is helpful, because people are able to communicate with others within seconds, and spread information, and while also healing ourselves with technology


	5. Had to do this as if i was from the time

**France Wins the Bloody Battle of Verdun, But at What Cost?**

By Bhavna Singh December 17, 1916

The Battle of Verdun, a battle that can now be described as one of the longest in history, is finally over, as of December 15, 1916. Grief plagues the minds of many in France and Germany, because of over 700,000 casualties on both sides. This was caused by the German general Erich von Falkenhayn hoping that if they destroyed France's military stronghold, they would defeat France and move on to their most powerful enemy, England.

"Men were squashed. Cut in two or divided from top to bottom. Blown into showers; bellies turned inside out; skulls forced into the chest as if by a blow from a club."says an Unknown French soldier after the battle.

The Battle was truly gruesome as both sides had a wide range of weapons including: rifles, landmines, grenades, poison gas, barbed wire, bombs, and quite surprisingly flamethrowers. This rather terrifying array of weapons have caused many injuries and deaths, but not only did it harm their enemies, it harmed the land. The forest that surrounds Verdun is now positively toxic and dangerous due to the amount of poison gas used and the large number of landmines littered throughout the forest. It's been estimated by experts that there are around 1 million landmines in the forest and we are currently not sure how they are going to remove and disarm all of them, but we can assume that all of the landmines will be removed and disarmed for centuries to come.

The mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives of these nations grieve as we mull over the fact that the innocent young men that we sent to the battle from our home will never come back, for they died on the battlefield fighting for their country. They will never be forgotten in the years to come.

Not only did the our military suffer but also civilians, because of the recently revealed information that shocked me to the core, nine villages were destroyed. The people were evacuated but all of their homes, fond memories, livelihoods, and possessions were all destroyed with no hope of getting them back. But what are nine destroyed villages compared to the whole country of France being taken over by Germany.


	6. Body Ritual of the Nacirema

Summary of BRAtN

The article called _Body Ritual of the Nacirema_ by Horace Miner, an American anthropologist, claims that the daily life of the American people can be described as unusual and grotesque because of the body rituals that occur throughout each day. He develops this claim by showing us how we can perceive a bathroom as a shrine that 'helps' us because we believe "that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease." and how "The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into the wall. In this chest are kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live... the medicine men do not provide the curative potions for their clients, but decide what the ingredients should be and then write them down in an ancient and secret language… understood only by the medicine men and by the herbalists who, for another gift, provide the required charm." Then, states that "The Nacirema have an almost pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships… they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them." Finally the writer Notes that " Natural reproductive functions are similarly distorted. Intercourse is taboo as a topic and scheduled as an act. Efforts are made to avoid pregnancy by the use of magical materials or by limiting intercourse to certain phases of the moon...". Miner's purpose is to bring to our attention how our daily routine can be seen in several different perspectives in order to provide us with a certain amount of critical distance. He establishes a mocking tone for the audience of people who believe that they should gain new perspectives on life or maybe people who think that they should have a more scientific view on their daily life. This article is significant because it provides an accurate anthropological view on the daily life of person that lives in the United States.


	7. RQ3

_RQ To what extent do you agree with Fraud's claim_

The Six Grand Illusions That Keep us Enslaved to the Matrix Argumentative Essay

I like lying under stars in October night skies. Now that you have read that look at the first letter of each word and put it all together ( _ **Illusions**_ ). What I mean by illusions is really the obstacles that keep us from making our own decisions. Additionally, a list and explanation of some of those illusions are in an article called _The Six Grand Illusions That Keep us Enslaved to the Matrix_ , the author Sigmund Fraud claims that we live in a world of illusion. Later, he explains and identifies these illusions. Fraud is somewhat correct in his assertion that we live a world of illusion but is incorrect in his articulation that they are illusions, for I believe that they are more like obstacles, anyway I believe the most prominent 'illusions' are the illusions of prosperity and happiness, truth, and time.

Fraud first gives us the example that he calls the illusion of prosperity and happiness. One piece of evidence that helps prove the existence of that illusion is from a movie called _The Truman Show_ directed by Peter Weir, in the show the paid actors advertise various products such as Mococoa Hot Cocoa or the kitchen appliance that you can chop slice and dice with(Weir 1998). This is called product placement and the person in charge of _The Truman Show_ used it to make money since the show was nonstop so they did not have the time for commercials. The people doing the advertising say the lines in a 'happy' voice with a smile to show the audience that they are happy owning the product and that if you buy that product you will be happy. Another piece of evidence that proves the existence of that illusion is a concept from an article called Body Ritual of the Nacirema, the concept being that the more shrines a family has the wealthier it is(Miner 1). This has the same basic idea of the common phrase that having money equals happiness. Additionally, the idea is that the more shrines a family or person has the wealthier they are and wealth means that they are prosperous and therefore happy. One last piece of evidence that supports the illusion is a quote from the chairman of the De Beers Diamond company Nick Oppenheimer, saying " Diamonds are intrinsically worthless except for the deep psychological need they fill."(Santoso 1). Even though we pay a lot of money for diamond jewelry it is actually not worth anything but if you have enough money to buy something that worthless and expensive than you must be very wealthy. This goes back to my previous statement about the common phrase 'Money=Happiness' so the bigger the diamond, the more money you have and having more money means that you are prosperous and therefore happy. However, some believe that money does equal happiness because they think that some system of wealth or circulation of a currency is a natural process that constantly shows up in a human societies. Despite the opposition, it is really the idea that over time we have internalized the idea that an abundance of things makes us happy rather than doing something and finding out for ourselves if we are happy or not.

One other example that Fraud uses to show us that we live in a world of illusions, is what he calls the illusion of truth. One piece of evidence that supports this illusion is the idea that if you wear the right amount of makeup then that means that you look and feel beautiful(Wilcox 1). Wearing makeup can also be called concealing your facial features from the people you interact with or in some cases from yourself due to insecurity. More so, buying and wearing makeup to conceal the face and/or body features benefits people in high places, like the person in charge of the makeup company or people that have a large amount of shares in the makeup company. Another piece of evidence that proves the existence of that illusion, is a show called "Adam Ruins Everything" created by Adam Conover(Conover). This show reveals how certain aspects of our life that we have gotten used to are actually made up because it benefits someone. Additionally this show reveals the 'ugly' truth about various things. One last piece of evidence that supports this illusion is from one of the world's most commonly known religions called Christianity, the religion seems have a very narrow way of interpreting the truth, their holy book called the Bible has a verse that states that "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth"(John 17:17, The Bible). Which literally means that god's word is the truth and the Bible is god's word, therefore the Bible will sanctify anyone of any wrongdoings that has happened in the person's life. This very narrow way of thinking has and probably still will lead to ignorance of the truth or how I like to call it ignoring facts that we can prove for ourselves. Others will justify that people conceal the truth because society willingly and easily accepts it. Nonetheless, people do willingly believe it but only because they have internalized the idea that they have to.

One last example that Fraud gives us to prove that we are living in a world of illusion is what he calls the illusion of time. One piece of evidence that proves the existence of this illusion is from a school called Capuchino High School, at the start of every school year the school gives out free planners and at least once a week the students are encouraged by our teachers or people on staff, to use our planners to make sure that we do our studies and be ready for the future. By doing this they are forcing us to internalize the idea that time is short and we need to constantly be preparing for the future. This also tells us that we need to always think of the future. Another piece of evidence is from the Law of Compulsory Education, which in California it states that children from 6 years of age to 18 years of age are required to go to school for a certain amount of time each year (Grocke). This shows that people have planned out at least 12 years of our lives ahead of time, when we didn't even exist. This law constantly reminds us to go to school or we won't have a good future that abides to the laws. One last piece of evidence that supports the existence of this illusion is from a book called Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, it is not part of the main plot but this book mentions a class called Divination which is basically a class that teaches students about how to predict the future using various methods, it was mentioned as a popular subject that would help a student figure out what they wanted to do in the future and it was highly recommended by a studious individual known as Percival Weasley. The way it was portrayed it in the book suggests that it was an important subject for them to choose, because without it they wouldn't be able to prepare for the future and would always have to beware of it. This shows how the people in the book are so afraid for the future that they force themselves to take a class that they don't even like or find use in. Some might argue that we need to beware of the future otherwise we wouldn't survive. The point remains that everybody is going overboard with worrying for the future.

The author of the article called _The Six Grand Illusions that Keep us Enslaved to the Matrix,_ is mostly correct in his claim that we live in a world of illusion but is inaccurate in his use of the word illusion being that the 'illusions' that he talks about are really obstacles, but the most prominent illusions he speaks of are the illusions of prosperity and happiness, truth, and time. Fraud believes thart by pointing out these illusions he leads you, the reader, to find the evidence of these illusions in you real life and realize the impact that these illusions have on your free will. Well, so that both of us can go back to doing stuff that we think of as more entertaining than reading or writing an essay I will get straight to the point of this, wake up and realize that there's a bunch of nonsense in the way of us making our own decisions and try to ignore it as much as you can and go on leading your own lives.

MLA Citations

Aitken, Robert. The Holy Bible. American Bible Society ed. New York: Arno, 1968. John 17:17. Print.

Adam Ruins Everything. Dir. Adam Conover. Perf. Adam Conover. TruTV. Film.

Grocke, Vicky. "Law Of Compulsory Education." Web. 4 Dec. 2015.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Arthur A. Levine , an Imprint of Scholastic, 1999. Print.

Santoso, Alex. "10 Facts About Diamonds You Should Know." Neatorama. 1 Dec. 2008. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.

The Truman Show. Dir. Peter Weir. Paramount Home Entertainment, 2000. DVD.

Wilcox, Christie. "The Science of Makeup." YouBeauty. 3 June 2011. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.


End file.
